If you only had to make one choice to prevent a friend or loved one from becoming addicted, wouldn’t you make it?

That’s the message in the Milwaukee County Substance Abuse Prevention (MCSAP) coalition’s “One Choice” PSA, released to mark Milwaukee County’s Light & Unite Red Week, January 22-27. The PSA depicts a young man in his grandmother’s home, where he finds her medication in her bathroom. He picks up a pill and sirens blare.

“One choice,” declare a number of leading prevention advocates in Milwaukee, including Milwaukee Fire Department Deputy Chief Aaron Lipski.

MCSAP’s “one choice” is safely disposing of unwanted medication so that it’s out of reach of a friend or loved one who could take it and potentially develop an addiction or become poisoned.

“We know that unused and expired medications that are not properly disposed of significantly increase the potential for abuse and function as a gateway toward illicit drug abuse and addiction,” Lipski said. “This PSA is important and critically timed. It speaks to the many communities that are suffering through the current opioid crisis and articulates in a poignant and visually stunning manner how simple it can be to become addicted, and, conversely, how simple it is to make the choice to avoid addiction.”

All police departments in Milwaukee County provide secure drug drop boxes in their stations, and all City of Milwaukee Fire Department stations offer secure mail-back envelopes for unwanted medication, no questions asked. A number of clinics and pharmacies throughout the county also take back unwanted or expired medication as well.

To learn more about safely disposing of unwanted medication, click here.

MCSAP is supporting Light & Unite Red Week, the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division’s local substance abuse prevention initiative that runs during National Drug and Alcohol Facts Week. Light & United Red Week shines a spotlight on the importance of substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery with a wide range of activities.